Alibaba to cooperate with Ford Motor for new retail opportunities

Justin Chin | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Signage for Alibaba Group is displayed at the company’s offices in Hong Kong, China, on Thursday, May 5, 2016.

China’s e-commerce giant Alibaba said on Thursday it signed an agreement with Ford Motor on strategic cooperation to jointly explore areas such as connectivity, cloud computing and artificial intelligence.

“The agreement aims to explore new ways to redefine how consumers purchase and own vehicles, as well as how to leverage digital channels to identify new retail opportunities,” Alibaba said in a press release.

The agreement between Alibaba and Ford is to “explore a pilot study” for new retail opportunities, it added.